Around town: February 19, 2014

The Phil­adelphia School Dis­trict has changed its 2013-14 cal­en­dar to make up for lost classroom time be­cause of this year’s snow clos­ings.

Schools will now be open on April 15, 16 and 17, days ori­gin­ally des­ig­nated for Spring Re­cess. The pro­jec­ted last day of school for stu­dents at this time is Thursday, June 19.

In the event that schools are closed due to in­clement weath­er or emer­gency in the com­ing weeks, the cal­en­dar will be re­viewed and fur­ther up­dates made as needed. ••

Re­port fall­ing or dan­ger­ous trees

The city’s trees have taken a beat­ing this winter. Any­one who spots a fallen tree that is caus­ing a haz­ard or sees a tree that might fall should re­port it by call­ing 311.

Leo Dig­nam, deputy Parks and Re­cre­ation com­mis­sion­er, said the city re­ceived 400 tree re­ports dur­ing and after the Feb. 5 ice storm. The Feb. 13 storm, as long as it was, gen­er­ated only 10 calls.

Call­ing 311, Dig­nam said Feb. 13, is the best way to re­port tree prob­lems.

For a tree or limb on wires, PECO spokes­man Greg Smore said, cus­tom­ers should call the emer­gency num­ber 1-800-841-4141. For trees that are near or close to wires, cus­tom­ers can call cus­tom­er ser­vice at 1-800-494-4000 to have a tech­ni­cian in­spect the situ­ation. ••

‘Two Funny Philly Guys’ are com­ing to town

“Two Funny Philly Guys,” a com­edy spe­cial star­ring Joe Conk­lin and Big Daddy Gra­ham, will be the fea­tured at­trac­tion when the hil­ari­ous duo steps in­to the en­ter­tain­ment spot­light at the Klein JCC, 10100 Jam­is­on Ave., at 8 p.m. on Sat­urday, March 1.

Ac­cord­ing to An­drew New­man, Klein JCC ath­let­ic and fit­ness dir­ect­or, “The com­edy show­case is be­ing staged as a be­ne­fit to raise funds for the ath­let­ic de­part­ment at Jew­ish com­munity cen­ter. This is go­ing to be a fab­ulously funny even­ing filled with a full share of hil­ari­ous antics, mer­ri­ment and laughter for every­one to en­joy. And it’s all for the JCC’s youth and adult ath­let­ics pro­grams.”

The law of­fices of Freed­man and Grish­pun, PC are the lead spon­sors for the event.

Cost for the Conk­lin/Gra­ham com­edy be­ne­fit spe­cial is $25 per per­son in ad­vance and $30 per per­son at the door. For groups of 10 or more, tick­ets are $20 per per­son. For in­form­a­tion, call 215-698-7300, ext. 146. ••

Part­ners for Pos­sib­il­it­ies Ball is March 13

Spe­cial People In North­east Inc. will hold its Part­ners for Pos­sib­il­it­ies Ball on Thursday, March 13, at Vie, at 600 N. Broad St.

Among the honorees will be Dr. Stew­art Barbera and the late City Coun­cil­wo­man Joan Kra­jew­ski.

Barbera is a pe­di­at­ri­cian known for his kind and gentle nature and ad­vocacy for chil­dren with dis­ab­il­it­ies.

Kra­jew­ski, who died last Septem­ber, was known for her com­mit­ment and ad­vocacy for people with dis­ab­il­it­ies.

The Fox Chase Can­cer Cen­ter Mo­bile Mam­mo­graphy Van will make an ap­pear­ance at the dis­trict of­fice of state Rep. John Sabat­ina Jr. (D-174th dist.) on Fri­day, March 21, at 10 a.m.

The of­fice is at 16 Old Ashton Road (at Holme Circle).

Mam­mo­grams will be offered throughout the day to in­di­vidu­als 40 or older.

“These screen­ings are an in­teg­ral part of ef­fect­ive health care and have been proven to save lives,” Sabat­ina said.

To make an ap­point­ment, call Linda Ham­mell at 215-728-3554. ••

Ir­ish folk group to per­form in Lawndale

Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfe Tones will per­form a con­cert on Sat­urday, March 1, at 7 p.m. at Vet­er­ans of For­eign Wars Post 2819, at 6850 Mar­tins Mill Road in Lawndale.

Also per­form­ing will be Timmy Kelly, the young Phil­adelphia-area sing­er who was born blind and has cereb­ral palsy.

Pro­ceeds will be­ne­fit Post 2819.

Mike Dougherty, the show’s pro­du­cer, has staged sev­er­al sell-out shows be­ne­fit­ing the VFW over the years.

A found­ing mem­ber of the le­gendary Wolfe Tones, Derek Warfield per­formed and re­cor­ded with the group for more than 37 years. In 44 years on the road, the sing­er-song­writer-his­tor­i­an has per­formed at nu­mer­ous ven­ues, in­clud­ing Carne­gie Hall in New York and the Roy­al Al­bert Hall in Lon­don.

Look­ing to pass on the rich mu­sic­al her­it­age of Ire­land to the next gen­er­a­tions, Warfield es­tab­lished the Young Wolfe Tones. Nom­in­ated as Ire­land’s best folk group, they are known throughout the world for their qual­ity mu­sic­al present­a­tion of Ir­ish “rebel songs” and tra­di­tion­al mu­sic.